Hoxie School makeover is still property transfer issue

May Town Meeting voters will consider a funding request to make over the closed Ella F. Hoxie Elementary School in North Sagamore into an arts / cultural / science education center.

Paul Gately

May Town Meeting voters will consider a funding request to make over the closed Ella F. Hoxie Elementary School in North Sagamore into an arts / cultural / science education center.

The Friends of Hoxie citizen group planning to take possession of the 100-year-old building at Williston Road near the canal requests $213,000 in Community Preservation Act funding from the historical resources account.

CPA Review Committee Chairman Barry Johnson said his panel likely will recommend a $230,000 article; with enough funding to underwrite services of an architect experienced in historical-building makeovers who can closely examine expenses and billing that can evolve in such endeavors.

Finance committee member Bill Grant, however, says that board must take a close look at the request. “This could be controversial given the cost,” he said. “This could absorb many of the resources of the CPA. I’m not against it, but I have reservations.”

The CPA funding request is typically straightforward: take an old school, bring it up to various building codes, make it safe and open the structure for a new use. But pre-town meeting review of that request is a bit more complicated.

“A Hoxie purchase-and-sale agreement between the town and the citizen group has not been completed yet,” Johnson said March 31. This, he said, likely makes a property-transfer difference in how the funding request will be listed in the warrant.

Depending on what Town Counsel Robert S. Troy advises, the article could be listed in the CPA funding requests on the annual warrant and that would need a simple majority vote for approval. Or, since the purchase agreement is still pending, the request could be included in the special-session warrant as a separate article. This would necessitate a two-thirds majority to prevail.

When Hoxie closed - as the new Bournedale Elementary School was set to open off Scenic Highway - selectmen inspected the wood-shingled building with its white trim. The initial assessment was that the town should get rid of the old school one way or another.

That sentiment changed three years ago. Selectmen ordered a request for proposals for a Hoxie re-use. There was one reply; that was from the citizen group that includes community activists, historical preservationists, educators and those with building-trades skills.

Johnson said the CPA funding request, should it evolve as now envisioned, would include so-called “triggers” so that all of the funds would not be released at once and that there would be time for reconsideration of the project if it appears it will not succeed.

In the 1950s and ’60s. Hoxie – the former Sagamore Grammar School – educated youngsters in Grades 1-8.

Finance committee member Bill Grant for another week openly doubted the revenue possibilities of a Hoxie School cultural center as well as the overall success of the ambitious proposal.

Finance members Judith Conron and Mary Jane Mastrangelo expressed support for the venture.